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Driving to a pedestrian-safety meeting not long ago, Columbus police Lt. Brent Mull began to
understand just how lax some walkers and runners can be about the city’s traffic rules.

Three people darted out in front of his cruiser, either not aware of or not caring about the $97
penalty for jaywalking in Columbus.

“I think a lack of enforcement has created a kind of laissez-faire attitude toward pedestrian
traffic Downtown,” said Mull, who oversees traffic operations for the Police Division.

For at least one day, the city brought that enforcement back, dispatching officers Downtown
yesterday to issue warnings and citations to both motorists and pedestrians who were flouting
traffic rules.

Mull said that yesterday’s enforcement effort was less of a punitive exercise than an
educational process. He didn’t have a tally of citations issued, and the Police Division doesn’t
track warnings, which also were freely distributed.

Pedestrians were most likely to be cited for running out into traffic or jaywalking, which
includes not using a sidewalk or nearby crosswalk.

Drivers were targeted for, among other violations, not giving pedestrians the right of way in a
crosswalk.

“We’re going after the motorists not paying attention to the pedestrians, and the pedestrians
not paying attention to the motorists,” Mull said.

Those types of charges have been filed in Franklin County Municipal Court 57 times this
year.

In the past 15 years, the number of similar charges against pedestrians and motorists has been
relatively steady. Last year, 203 charges were filed against walkers or drivers for
pedestrian-related infractions.

Since 1999, nearly 3,000 charges have been filed, mostly against drivers for failing to yield to
a pedestrian in a crosswalk or to pedestrians for crossing unsafely.

The numbers have dropped as low as 147 charges filed in 2002 and as high as 255 in 2006.

That’s a far cry from the 1970s, when Columbus was infamous as the jaywalking-ticket capital. In
1975, more than 10,000 jaywalking citations were issued.

Last year, nine pedestrians in Columbus were hit, and five were killed. Four pedestrians have
been struck by vehicles this year; two died.

Andrea Kelly is well aware of the perils of jaywalking. In her 23 years working Downtown, she
has twice been cited. Outside at noontime yesterday, she made sure she was properly crossing
streets, even alleys.

“I’m not willing to take a chance,” said Kelly, who lives in Pickerington.

But she was conflicted about whether officers should be putting an emphasis on traffic laws for
pedestrians.

“I understand why there’s rules,” she said. “But a responsible adult should be able to make a
decision (to cross) if there are no cars around.”

Just around the corner from patrolling officers, unaware pedestrians crossed E. Broad Street at
Young Street in search of lunch. About a dozen jaywalkers crossed Broad within a few minutes around
noon.

The illegal crossings are so bad there that Momentive, a company in the Centennial Plaza
building, started handing out gift cards and other incentives to employees who company spotters
note have used the Broad Street crosswalk a half-block away at 4th Street.

“There’s no history of anyone getting hit,” said Jackie Poindexter, who works in environmental
health and safety at Momentive and helped start the program. “But it’s almost like
Frogger.”

Ohio State University students and employees will have their own enforcement blitz to look
forward to in the fall. Mull said Columbus police officers will move north to campus to remind
returning students how to properly cross a street.